Last month’s Solar Eclipse escape of Atlantic Salmon from concentrated fish lots across the water from us in Washington State brought condemnation and quick action from local authorities in the US. If only it were so here in BC, where repeated escapes of the alien species have met with little more than tut tuts from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans; the organization tasked with protecting Canada’s maritime environment.

The Cooke Aquaculture net failure adds more ammunition to opponents in the ongoing fight against fish farms in our waters.

This Summer has seen two dock occupations by First Nations in two separate jurisdictions, and the return of crusading biologist Alexandra Morton and allies the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, with Operation Virus Hunter II.

The season’s efforts culminated last week with the Rally to End Fish Farms in the Broughton Archipelago manifesting at the heart of Vancouver’s Canada Place, and pressing the new NDP government take action to shut down the industry.

Rod Marining is a long-time BC resident and Ocean defender. He’s a co-founder of Greenpeace, current Director at the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and Chair of the BC Environmental Network, among other things. He’s spent the last few months on board with Sea Shepherd’s Operation Virus Hunter, the second of a two-Summer campaign, trying to get fish farms out of BC’s waters.

Rod Marining in the first half.

And; Canada’s Foreign Minister, Chrystia Freeland is much in the news lately; generally seen in the context of renewed NAFTA negotiations between tripartite partners, Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Though doing trade and investment rule deals is a small part of Freeland’s portfolio, it’s one she’s uniquely qualified for. The former business journalist and author of the award-winning book, ‘Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else’, is well-used to rubbing elbows with some of the most powerful of the Western World’s power elite. But could those ties, while providing welcome free access for an ambitious journalist, later prove costly political encumbrances to a cabinet minister?

John Helmer is a long-time, Moscow-based journalist, author, and essayist whose website, Dances with Bears is the only news bureau “independent of single national or commercial ties.” He’s also a former political science professor who has served as an advisor to governments on three continents and regularly lectures on Russian topics. Helmer’s book titles include: ‘Uncovering Russia,’ ‘Urbanman: The Psychology of Urban Survival,’ ‘Bringing the War Home: The American Soldier in Vietnam and After,’ and ‘Drugs and Minority Oppression’ among others.

John Helmer on the minister and the plutocrat in the second half.

And; activist and broadcaster at large, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events update. But first, Rod Marining and getting those fish out of water.